"On my tombstone they are going to say: 'He Wrote Hello, Dolly!' That's it--that's all people are going to say about me." So begins chapter five of Jerry Herman's memoir
Showtune Were it not for his phenomenal success as the composer-lyricist for
Dolly as well as a handful of other Broadway hits, his tombstone might well read
"He was a nice guy." And that would be that. No memoir anyone would buy. Probably lots of
friends, but none as well known as the ones who march through the pages of this book.

Actually, Herman is not really complaining about his identity vis-à-vis Dolly. He
loves being a song writer, and takes pride in all his shows--from Milk and
Honey, to La Cage Aux Folles, to Mame, to his own
special favorite, Mack and Mabel. The tombstone comment is merely an
introduction to the behind-the-scenes difficulties resulting from producer David Merrick's reign
of terror during the show's out-of-town tryouts. In fact, except for the notoriously difficult
Merrick and Martha Raye, the only one of the seven actresses who played
Mame who failed to become a good friend, there's nary a sour note in the 267
pages that make up this book. Herman bubbles with enthusiasm and love for Broadway musicals
and its practitioners. That's not to say he ignores disappointments and tragedies--the early loss of
his beloved mother, the death of his lover, his own HIV positive status, a painful plagiarism
suit and his style of music's declining popularity. But, good times or bad, his story is
always filtered through an upbeat lens. To borrow from the title of his first show, this is that
rare show business memoir penned in milk and honey rather than vitriol. This determinedly
sunny, at times syrupy, tempo notwithstanding, Herman comes through as a serious and
committed professional, confident of his talent but not a taken-with-himself show business
personality.

Herman's resume as the child of comfortable music-loving parents and successful
interior designer, (his first career choice), is interesting primarily as an addendum to the story of Jerry
Herman, creator of bold and bouncy show tunes. And it is in the stories he tells of his growth as
a songwriter and his ongoing involvement with the shows he works on to keep them fresh that
this memoir is at its most illuminating. Take his meeting with Loesser, serendipidously arranged
by a friend of a friend of his mother's:

After hearing him play a few of his songs, the great man took out a big
drawing pad and colored marking pencils. He held the pad horizontally, sketched
a freight train and locomotive, adding variously colored boxcars. He then added a red caboose and told young Herman "A song is like a freight train. It has to have a
locomotive, which is the bold idea that first arrests your ear and propels you into the rest of the
song. The whole body of the song has to follow that first fascinating idea. What follows can be about many things, but they all have to go where that
locomotive is going. Then comes the most important thing, the red caboose that ends the song
with a twist, a little surprise-- always remember to hook on the caboose, because that's what
makes a good song."

Herman never forgot. While he was working with the cast of
Mack and Mabel he adapted the concept of the colored box cars to help them
put the songs across: "Every song in this show has a different color," he
told them. "I am not going to teach you the songs, because you know the songs. I am going to
teach you the different colors." He then pointed out how one song was wrong
because they were singing it like a pink song when it was a red song.

Herman is as taken with color as Diana Vreeland was, His description of David Merrick's famous
fire-engine red office serves as an interesting contrast to Vreeland's red living room--the first an
unnerving setting for a man fixated on power; the second warm and designed to amuse. (See our review of Full Gallop).

Herman's business acumen as a designer is not all that surprising when you learn how he sold
his first show. After walking around the nightclubs of Greenwich Village he persuaded the owner
of one of the seediest that he could put on a show that would boost business for just $12,000.
The owner bought it and the show was a hit, and made the nightclub a hit.
Nightcap, which was its name, ran for two years and Herman kept it fresh by changing the comedy material, using
topics right from headline, much as Jackie Mason does today. His habit of visiting his shows nightly was formed with that show and persisted even when he had two hits running simultaneously.

Since Showtune was written with a co-author, Marilyn Stasio, it's fair to
assume that Herman wanted someone as attuned to writing an autobiographical book as he is to
writing a tune. No doubt she contributed towards shaping this memoir into the straightforward
and endearing portrait it paints. What she failed to do was to lift the prose above the hum-drum.
Herman's unassuming nice-guy image would have been even more sincere with a less breathless
style and fewer repeat adjectives. Absolutely, for one, is used absolutely too much!

Hello, Dolly had a successful revival on Broadway last season but unlike our
review of Graham Payn's memoir of his life with Noel Coward, ( My Life With
Noël Coward reviw) there's no Herman revival currently on the boards.Update June 28, 1998: The one Herman flop, Mack and Mabel was revised in 1995 and became the centerpiece of the Barrington Stage summer season on this date (see our review).
And the book is available at Amazon